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1. Bush gives clemency to BP agents
2. ICE arrests expand beyond fugitives
3. Experts fret conditions in Mexico
4. Report blasts treatment of detainees
5. Asian pols make headway

1.
Bush commutes Border Patrol agents' prison terms
The president grants clemency to two men convicted of shooting a fleeing drug smuggler and tossing evidence. The prosecution and sentencing in the 2005 shooting caused an uproar among conservatives.
By Josh Meyer
The Los Angeles Times, January 20, 2009

Washington, DC -- In one of his final acts in office, President Bush on Monday commuted the controversial prison terms of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an unarmed Mexican drug smuggler who fled across the Rio Grande, away from a van loaded with 743 pounds of marijuana.

The clemencies were granted without input from the Justice Department, one of several controversial cases in which the White House did not go through the standard review, according to current and former Justice Department officials.

Bush's grants of clemency for Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos were prompted by sustained pressure from Republican lawmakers -- along with some Democrats -- in California, Texas and other border states.

The former agents' case had been a cause celebre among advocates of a more hard-line approach to securing the border against illegal immigration. Lawmakers and conservative groups had aggressively pushed for pardons for the two men.

Compean and Ramos were convicted of shooting admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks as he fled a van loaded with marijuana in 2005. They testified at their trial that they thought Aldrete Davila was armed and that they had shot him in self-defense. But the prosecution said there was no evidence linking Davila to the van, that the agents had not reported the shooting and that they tossed their shotgun casings into the Rio Grande to hide the evidence.

The agents were found guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon, violating Aldrete Davila's civil rights and defacing a crime scene.

Much of the evidence against the agents came from Aldrete Davila, who was granted immunity. He has suffered lasting effects from his injury.

The Justice Department announced the commutations in a brief statement that included no explanation, as is traditional in such executive orders. The White House had no comment.

Bush could have pardoned Compean and Ramos, which essentially would have wiped away their convictions. By commuting their prison terms, he left their convictions intact.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-border-guard-...

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2.
Immigration agents casting their nets beyond fugitive list
By Leslie Berestein
The San Diego Union Tribune, January 18, 2009

The hazy violet light of dawn is just appearing in the eastern sky one recent morning as a team of immigration agents steps quietly onto the front porch of a rickety wooden house in Escondido tucked next to a thrift shop.

Wearing vests and jackets labeled “police,” the agents knock on the screen door. A couple of minutes go by before a short, stocky man in a red tank top appears, his dark hair in disarray as if he had been roused from bed.

“Somos policía,” one of the agents begins in Spanish. “We're police. Do you mind if we come inside to talk to you?”

It is a scene that has become increasingly common in immigrant communities. Since 2003, a growing staff of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has been charged with removing hundreds of thousands of people nationwide who have not complied with deportation orders.

ICE officials credit the policy with significantly reducing the nation's list of noncompliant deportees, whom the agency refers to as fugitives. But it has a particularly controversial component: Once inside a home, it's common for agents check the immigration status of others, sometimes even when the person they are seeking isn't there.

Out of the 80,025 arrests made by ICE fugitive teams in fiscal years 2006 through 2008, nearly one-third were people not on the list.

These detainees, until recently termed collateral arrests by ICE, have ranged from people who answered the door at an outdated address to a young man detained at a Linda Vista bus stop while a fugitive operation took place nearby.

The resulting appearance of randomness has prompted outrage from immigrant advocates and unease in immigrant neighborhoods, with nervous talk of redadas, or raids. Legal residents and U.S. citizens have also been asked for their status, adding to the controversy.

Officials argue that the agents who carry out fugitive operations are enforcing the law. Bystanders are approached in the hope of finding the person they are looking for, agents say, and if someone is suspected of being here illegally or deportable, his or her status is checked.
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http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/18/1n18immig211029-immig...

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3.
Could Mexico collapse? As drug war worsens, some Americans worry for neighbor's stability
By Traci Carl
The Associated Press, January 18, 2009

Mexico City (AP) -- Indiscriminate kidnappings. Nearly daily beheadings. Gangs that mock and kill government agents.

This isn't Iraq or Pakistan. It's Mexico, which the U.S. government and a growing number of experts say is becoming one of the world's biggest security risks.

The prospect that America's southern neighbor could melt into lawlessness provides an unexpected challenge to Barack Obama's new government. In its latest report anticipating possible global security risks, the U.S. Joint Forces Command lumps Mexico and Pakistan together as being at risk of a "rapid and sudden collapse."

"The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels," the command said in the report published Nov. 25.

"How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state."

Retiring CIA chief Michael Hayden told reporters on Friday that that Mexico could rank alongside Iran as a challenge for Obama — perhaps a greater problem than Iraq.

The U.S. Justice Department said last month that Mexican gangs are the "biggest organized crime threat to the United States." National security adviser Stephen Hadley said last week that the worsening violence threatens Mexico's very democracy.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently told The New York Times he ordered additional border security plans to be drawn up this summer as kidnappings and killings spilled into the U.S.

The alarm is spreading to the private sector as well. Mexico, Latin America's second biggest economy and the United States' third biggest oil supplier, is one of the top 10 global risks for 2009 identified by the Eurasia Group, a New York-based consulting firm.

Mexico is brushing aside the U.S. concerns, with Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez-Mont saying Wednesday: "It seems inappropriate to me that you would call Mexico a security risk. There are problems in Mexico that are being dealt with, that we can continue to deal with, and that's what we are doing."
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-lt-mexico-besi...

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4.
Report Faults Treatment of Women Held at Immigration Centers
By Dan Frosch
The New York Times, January 21, 2009

Some 300 women held at immigration detention centers in Arizona face dangerous delays in health care and widespread mistreatment, according to a new study by the University of Arizona, the latest report to criticize conditions at such centers throughout the United States.

The study, which federal immigration officials criticized as narrow and unsubstantiated, was conducted from August 2007 to August 2008 by the Southwest Institute of Research on Women and the James E. Rogers College of Law, both at the University of Arizona. It was released Jan. 13.

Researchers examined the conditions facing women in the process of deportation proceedings at three federal immigration centers in Arizona. An estimated 3,000 women are being held nationwide.

The study concluded that immigration authorities were too aggressive in detaining the women, who rarely posed a flight risk, and that as a result, they experienced severe hardships, including a lack of prenatal care, treatment for cancer, ovarian cysts and other serious medical conditions, and, in some cases, being mixed in with federal prisoners.

Katrina S. Kane, who directs Arizona detention and removal operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, dismissed the study as unsubstantiated accounts from a limited number of detainees and their advocates.

“Reports such as this, while alleging to be unbiased, do great harm to the public’s understanding of the complex issues involved in immigration law enforcement,” Ms. Kane said.

The director of border research for the institute on women, Nina Rabin, an immigration lawyer who led the study, countered that interviews with detainees, former detainees and their lawyers corroborated a pattern of endemic mistreatment.

And Ms. Rabin said she had spoken with immigrant advocacy groups around the United States, many of whom stated that mistreatment of women at the centers was not unusual.

“We were pretty shocked to learn about all the ways in which life is made endlessly difficult for these women,” Ms. Rabin said, especially those who were pregnant or had recently given birth.

The immigration department has been under increasing pressure to improve conditions at its detention centers. The federal Government Accountability Office and the inspector general’s office at the Department of Homeland Security have each released reports in the last three years criticizing standards at such centers, many of which are operated by private contractors.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/21immig.html

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5.
In San Francisco and beyond, Asian-Americans gaining political ground
By Juliana Barbassa
The Associated Press, January 18, 2009

San Francisco (AP) -- When three newly elected Chinese-American city supervisors climbed on stage in Chinatown, flanked by dragon dancers and lit up by camera flashes, they were hailed for making history in a city their forebears have shaped since the Gold Rush Days.

Now their November sweep has been topped with the election of one of them, David Chiu, as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors — the second most powerful position in local government.

It is fitting that San Francisco, which is 34 percent Asian and home of the nation's oldest Chinatown, is leading the way on Asian-American political representation. But the country's fastest growing minority group also is reaching new heights on the state and national stage.

Experts say their newfound clout is not due to numbers alone.

The political engagement of Asian-Americans is growing. Many immigrants are earning citizenship. Community organizations are mounting voter registration drives. Ethnic media increasingly are endorsing candidates and covering political campaigns. And politicians are scoring victories, even in areas without a strong Asian electorate.

Countrywide, there are more than 2,000 Asian and Pacific Islander elected and appointed representatives, according to UCLA's Asian American Studies Center. In California, Asian-Americans hold two seats in the state Senate, 10 in the Assembly, plus the posts of state controller and chief of the Board of Equalization. A decade ago, there was only one high-ranking Asian-American official, the state treasurer.

"We're finally gaining full admission to the club," said David Lee, who teaches political science at San Francisco State University.

The Asian-American population has expanded from 0.5 percent in 1960 — prior to repeal of restrictive immigration laws — to 5 percent now. The U.S. Census projects they will grow to 8 percent by 2050.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-asian-america...